Max pain // Cboe delayed data · as of Aug 14, 12:30 PM ET

LI max pain

Spot (delayed)$12.22
Max pain · Fri, Sep 18$15+22.7% vs spot
Expected move (ATM straddle)±$1.57±12.8% by Fri, Sep 18
Put/Call OI0.6525K puts / 38K calls
Call wall$35largest call OI
Put wall$12largest put OI
IV3050.6%30-day implied vol
Net GEX−$313Kper 1% move

Event risk before this expiration: Jobs report Fri, Sep 4 · CPI release Fri, Sep 11 · FOMC decision Wed, Sep 16 — macro releases historically overwhelm pinning effects; max pain reads weakest in event weeks.

Max pain levels

ExpiryMax painvs spotDTE
Fri, Aug 21$12-1.8%6d
Fri, Aug 28$12.5+2.3%13d
Fri, Sep 4$12-1.8%20d
Fri, Sep 11$12.5+2.3%27d
Fri, Sep 18$15+22.7%34d
Fri, Sep 25$13+6.4%41d
Fri, Oct 2$12-1.8%48d
Fri, Dec 18$13+6.4%125d

The writer-loss curve — where max pain comes from

spot1571318242935$37M$0
■ put-side pain■ call-side painTotal payout option writers would owe at each settle price (both sides, all open interest, ×100 shares) — low settles hurt put writers, high settles hurt call writers. The minimum — 15 — is the max pain price.

Open interest by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot157111519233514K14K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)LI open contracts per strike for Fri, Sep 18.

Open-interest change — building vs unwinding

Needs two observed snapshot days for this expiration — the comparison appears automatically once the next weekday snapshot lands. We diff real observations only; nothing is estimated.

Volume by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot1571115192335420420
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Today's traded contracts per strike (delayed).

Implied volatility by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot71318242935192%45%
— call IV— put IVATM ≈ 51.0% · Quoted strikes only; illiquid wings with junk fits are dropped, not smoothed.

Gamma exposure by strike · Fri, Sep 18

spot71115192335+$186K$186K
Net dealer gamma per strike, in dollars per 1% move, assuming the standard convention (dealers long calls, short puts) — an assumption, not an observation. Above the amber flip level hedging tends to dampen moves; below it, to amplify them.

Greeks by strike · Fri, Sep 18

Call ΔCall ΘStrikeΓVegaPut ΘPut Δ
0.97-0.0070.01510.00-0.00-0.03
0.96-0.0080.02470.00-0.00-0.04
0.95-0.0090.04230.00-0.00-0.05
0.90-0.00100.08160.01-0.01-0.10
0.78-0.01110.14880.01-0.01-0.22
0.60-0.01120.20170.01-0.01-0.41
0.40-0.01130.19880.01-0.01-0.61
0.24-0.01140.15570.01-0.01-0.77
0.14-0.01150.10710.01-0.01-0.87
0.09-0.01160.07240.01-0.00-0.92
0.07-0.00170.05170.01-0.00-0.94
0.05-0.00180.03920.00-0.00-0.96
0.04-0.00190.03100.00-0.00-0.97

Quoted contract greeks from the delayed feed (not modeled here); the highlighted row is nearest to spot. Showing 13 strikes around the money — all 21 are in the CSV. Δ per $1 of underlying · Θ per day · vega per IV point.

Stacked — layer the expirations

spot6911.51416.5205K0
Call open interest per strike, stacked across the checked expirations — each color is one expiry. Strikes are pruned to the liquid center of each chain.

All expirations combined — total open interest

spot391317233727K27K
■ calls (up)■ puts (down)Every expiration combined: 112K call contracts, 93K put contracts open.

Reading this honestly

Max pain is arithmetic, not prophecy: the settle price that would minimize what option writers pay out at expiration, computed from open interest alone. Prices sometimes gravitate toward heavy strikes into expiry — dealer hedging is a real flow — but the evidence that max pain predicts settlement better than chance is mixed, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Use it as a map of where positioning is stacked, next to the fundamentals and the earnings calendar, not as a target.

Data: Cboe delayed public feed (~15 minutes), refreshed here about every 15 minutes. Open interest itself updates once daily, before the open. Educational information, not investment advice.

Keep going: LI workspace · max pain, explained in full · options profit calculator · GEX, defined · pin risk